It’s not lost on her colleagues, however, that the group that helped vault her into place—and who have two founders leading her office—is the sworn enemy of the establishment she needs to work with.

…Khanna was the only sitting member of Congress to endorse Ocasio-Cortez. But today he said the party needs for all of its component parts to keep their eyes on the real prize. “Our primary focus has to be stop Donald Trump, to defeat the Republicans, particularly in the Senate. That is the single most effective thing we can do to advance progressive politics,” Khanna said. “I have been encouraging our party to save our fire for Republicans rather than on intraparty disputes.”

…Despite the group’s success attracting support for the Green New Deal, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied calls for a select committee on the idea. And 45 co-sponsors is a long way from the 218 needed to actually pass something.

…“If [Ocasio-Cortez] can wave her hand and endanger the reelection prospects of even pretty liberal members, then that is one thing. …Does she have that kind of power? If you take a shot and miss, you are very much likely going to be worse off than even if you didn’t take a shot at all.”

…Buck, the Colorado donor, says he is thrilled with Ocasio-Cortez—“She is fabulous”—but wary of what Justice Democrats want to do next. “It is little tricky. People without experience can shake things up, but I worry that they will be sitting ducks for the Republicans.”

…POLITICO also reported that Ocasio-Cortez and allies were eyeing a primary challenge to Hakeem Jeffries, a young Brooklyn lawmaker who angered progressives in part for taking Joe Crowley’s position in the leadership over the more liberal Barbara Lee in California. 

…Jeffries’ camp noted, pointedly, that the story didn’t include an on-the-record denial from Ocasio-Cortez herself. They also told me she hadn’t reached out to Jeffries herself to deny it. Jeffries himself was quoted citing the lyrics of Notorious B.I.G: “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way.”

“That quote was sending a message,” said one Jeffries supporter in New York. “I am from Brooklyn. Don’t fuck with me.”

…Strother, the Texas operative, said people from outside Cuellar’s South Texas district—a place where guns and gas drilling are a way of life and an economic driver—don’t understand the absolutism. How, he asked, could a party that prides itself on being welcoming now try to kick apostates out of the tent?

…”We have everything under the sun in our party. We say you can worship what you want, you can love what you want and you can be what you want. Then how is it that we are going to tell people you can’t think what you want?”

‘There Is Going to Be a War Within the Party. We Are Going to Lean Into It.’ – POLITICO Magazine

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“Who is in charge in that office? Is she unable to fire him for his racist comments?”

…A senior Democratic aide said it was “unheard of” for a chief of staff — or any Hill staffer — to repeatedly and publicly launch broadsides against lawmakers in their own party without any consequences.

…On Friday, Democratic leaders tapped the caucus’s official Twitter account to attack Chakrabarti for a weeks-old tweet targeting freshman Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), a gay Native American mixed martial arts fighter, for her support of the Senate border bill. Ocasio-Cortez and Justice Democrats had backed Davids’s challenger, Brent Welder, in last year’s Democratic primary.

“Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color? ” read the message under the House Democrats account, which is managed by the office of Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

…“Not a single House Democrat resembles a racist segregationist from the Jim Crow South. Not one. We confronted an incendiary charge that required a measured response,” [Jeffries’s chief spokesman, Michael] Hardaway said on Monday.

…Hardaway declined to discuss internal deliberations with his boss about how the tweet came about. But it appeared to be sanctioned by the top Democratic leadership: The tweet was retweeted by Drew Hammill, who oversees communications and messaging for Pelosi.

…Hammill told reporters he retweeted the caucus tweet “in my personal capacity as a gay man who was bullied and beaten in high school.”

Ocasio-Cortez top aide emerges as lightning rod amid Democratic feud | TheHill

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